Navigating the transition from post-primary school is daunting enough for students who come from well-resourced, stable homes. For a young person who has experienced foster or residential care, the challenge is far greater.
At 18 they move into aftercare, only receiving an aftercare allowance if they enter education or training – a situation that effectively heaps precarious accommodation on top of social stigma and significant emotional trauma, all while trying to negotiate the steep climb to independence.
According to Tusla’s latest available figures, 146 people aged 18-22 moved from State care into homelessness, as of the third quarter of 2025.
Yet it was not until the Higher Education Authority’s National Access Plan 2022-2028 that such young people were even named as a group with distinct, specific challenges in accessing higher education.
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In a worthwhile initiative, Munster Technological University, University College Cork, Kerry ETB, Cork ETB, Tusla and Epic (Empowering People in Care) have created an education partnership, the first of its kind in Ireland. It will provide a “one-stop shop” information hub for care-experienced young people, including career guidance and a named, accessible, personal support advocate in each college. This initiative should be expanded right across the country.
Having access to this kind of mentorship can make all the difference. A graduate, Kai Brosnan, spoke movingly at this week’s launch of achieving a first-class honours degree despite dropping out of school after the Junior Cert, experiencing severe financial stress and even a period of homelessness while in college. It was good for all the representatives of statutory and voluntary organisations involved with children in the care of the State to be able to celebrate for once.
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This is a beleaguered sector, with enormous challenges. Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, spends a lot of time in court explaining to irate judges why there are no special care beds for young people with extraordinarily complex and challenging needs.
The latest volume of the Child Law Reporting project outlines shocking cases in which, instead of being placed in secure therapeutic units, children remained in special emergency arrangements. These are unregulated placements provided by profit-making entities, often hotels or B&Bs, with staff who lack the necessary qualifications or experience.
One case involved a teenage girl in such an arrangement who “presents as younger than she is” and “shows little insight”. She “would be collected, brought to a park, sexually assaulted and then returned to her placement” by a group of middle-aged men. She had gone missing about 10 times since her case was last heard. In court, the girl’s mother described the perpetrators as a “network of paedophiles” and “men swapping her around”. This girl needs a special care bed, but none can be found.
Kitty Holland, Social Affairs Correspondent of The Irish Times, established that in the first seven months of last year alone, Tusla paid more than €36 million to private operators to house vulnerable children in these unregulated settings. One child had been in such a setting for two to three years.
Money is being thrown at the problem when strategic planning and capital investment are needed. Privatisation is not just affecting residential care but also foster care, echoing a trend in England. According to the Observer, in England private equity firms have acquired more than 40 fostering agencies, with three big London-based groups (Stirling Square, CapVest, and Cap10) now dominating the sector. The total value of the country’s foster care market is estimated at nearly £2.2 billion. Costs have risen apace, with foster placements now costing councils about £50,000 a year, nearly double the £26,000 cost of a local authority placement.
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Wales will phase out private providers by 2030, believing public money should be invested in children’s welfare rather than extracted as profit. Children’s residential and foster care services must be provided exclusively by local authorities, charities or not-for-profit organisations. This is not without challenges, including building sectoral capacity, but arose from requests from young people in care.
Recently, Minister for Children Norma Foley announced that the Government would buy or fit out up to eight buildings around the country this year, with each one providing at least 100 places, to be staffed and run by not-for-profit early-years childcare providers. Imagine the difference something similar would make to residential care.
A year ago the Children’s Residential and Aftercare Voluntary Association proposed a hybrid model to Tusla, whereby Tusla would identify suitable buildings that the voluntary sector would staff while Tusla retained ownership. It says it has heard nothing since.
Many in foster and residential care thrive, and more may do so since the new educational partnership at third level. But we still tolerate the intolerable. We are good at expressing horror about how children were failed in the past. But somehow in 2026 young girls are being sexually exploited while the State wrings its hands helplessly.
